IRNSS Constellation Optimization: A Multi-objective Genetic Algorithm Approach

Abstract

Currently, India has built an autonomous regional navigation satellite system named as IRNSS or Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. It is based on a constellation of seven GSO (geosynchronous) satellites. IRNSS has shown proof of concept with a minimum number of satellites. Now to analyse whether the current constellation is optimum or not, a study has been carried out which is based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach. For a navigation system, precise positioning is the major objective. The precise positioning depends on the position accuracy and the geometry of the satellites. The geometry of the satellites is defined in terms of Dilution of Precision (DOP). The primary goal of constellation design is to minimize the maximum DOP and minimum impact on the failure of one satellite. In order to analyse the implementation of genetic algorithms for IRNSS constellation optimization, a specific algorithm called Multi-objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) has been used in this study. Constellation design for IRNSS constellation will have extremely large size of constellation search space of possibilities, therefore it is better to formulate the situation like an optimization problem with constraints as in mathematics. This paper proposes the use of MOGA and a constellation design problem model which can be used as a theoretical basis to achieve an optimum IRNSS constellation.